View: Aston Villa lack of cutting edge laid bare in defeat v Bournemouth
Aston Villa were left to rue their lack of cutting edge and defending from crosses as Bournemouth beat Steven Gerrard’s side 2-0 in their Premier League curtain raiser.
Villa certainly had their fair share of attempts, managing 16 shots on goal according to Wyscout.
Sadly, it was clear to see where their problems lie with only two of their attempts actually hitting the target in what proved to be a frustrating day.
There seemed to be a real lack of composure and quality in the final third and this is displayed by some rather disappointing crossing statistics.
Villa managed to amass 32 crosses compared to Bournemouth’s eight and considering that Bournemouth scored from two of theirs, it’s a bad stat for Villa.
The positive for Villa is that they did dominate the play and got themselves into good attacking positions at times in their defeat at the Vitality Stadium.
Villa beat their hosts in terms of every single passing metric and can certainly hope that they will eventually see the goals flow.
Despite scoring two goals, Bournemouth couldn’t match Villa’s expected goals (0.95), which indicates that Gerrard’s side are creating enough chances.
Furthermore, they had 65% possession which demonstrates Gerrard’s eagerness to hold onto the ball and play in a possession-based way.
On another day their fortunes could’ve been very different and Villa fans will be hoping for their good progressive play to be rewarded in the coming weeks.
Another striker coming through the door at Villa Park could be big for Gerrard moving forward.
In other Aston Villa news, Bardell is fully supportive of the club’s strategy up front after Cameron Archer’s new deal.